Hydra Lestrange Finch-Fletchley

FIN

2015-09-02T03:27:37Z

HYDRA FINCH-FLETCHLEY has a life-long career as an Auror for the Republic of Albion. Future ducklings are always desperate to train with Draco, Ron, and Hydra, but Hydra is known as the most rigorous and unforgiving of the three; she also tends to form deep and lasting connections with those she mentors.

Starting with Ginny, Hydra begins to experiment with utilising legilimency as a therapy tool for victims of trauma and abuse. With Hermione's editorial assistance, she writes a book on the subject, thus fostering a new cultural perspective on both natural and spell-cast legilimency.

Hydra officially adopts her brother and sister. Rigel calls her "Duckie." Charlotte grows up aware that Hydra is her sister, but calls her "Mum" (not "Mummy," please). Both are sorted into Slytherin when their time comes. Hydra devotes years toward helping Rigel to understand his powers and not abuse them, but...time will tell if he can resist temptation. Rod and Lana are regularly sent updates and photographs of Charlotte (and Rigel, too, for Rod). Charlotte does not meet her parents until she is old enough to make that request, which she does at age 10. Thereafter, she begins corresponding with her biological parents on her own. The rest of the Sandoval family are also a part of Charlotte's life.

Shortly after the war ends, Hydra falls into a pattern of completely empty, casual-sex relationships wherein she leaves the other person feeling decidedly wounded and vaguely used. This lasts a few years, and then she gets over it and has a period where she doesn't date at all. At age 27, a fit-looking wizard helps Hydra escape a persistent reporter while both are attending a Gala Fundraiser. He turns out to be Quidditch star of Puddlemere, Oliver Wood, who she begins dating, falls in love with, and eventually marries. A divorcee, Oliver already has two sons; they decide that they're satisfied with four children in their blended family, and Hydra never does discover if she can have biological children of her own.

She continues to wear her wedding ring from Justin on a chain around her neck, and puts flowers on his grave at every birthday, anniversary, and Remembrance day.

She remains very tight with Hermione and Draco, keeps in close contact with Nanella, Narcissa, and Dora (and her kids). She also visits and corresponds with Laura, Justin's mother, who considers Charlotte a grand-daughter.

Throughout her life the press badgers Hydra for interviews; she never gives them. She does, however, assist an ethical historian who is writing an accurate biography on Bellatrix Lestrange. When it's published it's an instant best-seller - everyone loves a good horror story.

Twenty years after the war, Hydra gathers up her Barty mementos, saved from their final confrontation: a small ankh on a leather cord, and the proof-of-life charm bracelet he wore - both given to him by Dolohov. She packages these up with a note and sends them to Cairo. The note reads For keeping your promise.

Every once and a while, she goes to the forbidden forest and stares at the spot where the Thestrals like to cluster.

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To All Citizens Of Albion

2015-08-31T17:58:34Z

I've been receiving requests for interviews, and I can't - I'd just like to make a statement here, please.

I started fighting in the war years ago, but I was never in a position to declare my rebellion openly. My family connections and mind magic abilities made me far more suited to an undercover role, and that's what I did. It was still devastating to be Marked for the council. It wasn't what I wanted, however much I knew it might help us reach our goals.

I, along with other of my peers, had to take innocent lives in order to maintain our positions and win this war. We had to do things that we found morally objectionable, more times than I can count. We all wore masks, and I imagine that many of you reading probably had to do that, too.

I apologise to anyone I ever hurt - directly or indirectly - during my time as a Death Eater.

That's all over now.

To make up for all the misdeeds I've done, I will remain a servant of Albion for as long as I am physically and mentally able. I swear to do my best to help keep this new world safe for everyone, whether pureblood, halfblood, muggleborn, or muggle.

I believe my husband would have done the same.

That's all.

From,
Hydra

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Order Only

2015-08-30T19:49:29Z

I'm going to bring the baby to the Great Hall for a bit, if anyone wants to see her.

Her name is Charlotte Amelia Finch-Fletchley, by the way. And I'll be changing Rigel's last name to Finch-Fletchley, too. So we can all be the same, and not have to be called Lestrange.

I'll be taking Rigel to see Nanella here shortly, but will anyone watch Charlotte while I run some errands with Hermione?

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Private message to Antonin Dolohov

2015-08-28T18:13:17Z

Why do you think it is your moral obligation, your duty, to kill Justin?

Or anyone else, for that matter.

I don't expect an answer. I'm asking anyway.

And you can ask me about Barty, if you want.

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Order Only Private message to Dora

2015-08-20T22:21:16Z

Have you been able to see Charlie yet? Or were you at least able to write? I hope he's doing all right.

If you want a distraction, maybe we could have tea together soon. With Bea and Adam too, of course. I think I would like that.

I've been wanting to talk about some things lately, I suppose, and with someone other than just Justin.

Plus I've always liked the tea you make.

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Order Only

2015-08-10T21:28:14Z

Rachel and the rest of MLE:

I'm not cleared for field duty, but you might want to send a patrol unit to the Forbidden Forest. If you still want Antonin Dolohov dead, that is.

Evelyn somehow passed it along to him that what's left of Barty is out there, so he may try to recover anything that remains in order to fulfill his superstitious methods and modes of worship.

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alt_hydra @ 2015-08-05T21:35:00

2015-08-06T02:37:02Z

H
h H's

He

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Private message to Barty

2015-08-06T00:13:45Z

I was at Fradswell and I was there when Antonin died, which means I was close enough to see Antonin Nikolaevich Dolohov die.

He was on the roof, struggling. Struggling to maintain the Inferi's attack and struggling to keep his disillusionment solid. But his energy was flagging. Every time someone killed one of his Inferi, it got worse, distracted him further. Eventually, he couldn't keep the disillusionment up. I saw him flicker in and out of visibility, awash in the waning light of the blue moon. And then everyone started firing curses at him. He couldn't defend himself and keep the Inferi going at the same time. It was too much, but he kept trying, he really did. It wasn't enough. A fatal curse landed.

I heard his last thoughts, and they were all about you.

Where were you? Do you remember? I'm sure you remember it well.

Yalla, yalla ya khara, NO, pomeeloy menyah, O my heart of my mother--

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Private message to Barty

2015-08-05T23:29:45Z

I don't think I ever told you, but I can hear the thoughts of someone who dies in front of me - whether they die by my wand or someone else's.

The first time I ever noticed it was when I cast AK on someone. There's a noise that's like the pop of a champagne cork. A consciousness suddenly vanished, and air rushes in to fill the vacuum.

If someone dies more slowly, say from a blood-letting curse, it's like having the volume slowly turned down on the wireless. The sound gets weaker and quieter until it's gone.

If someone dies from Dark, ritualistic magic, then their thoughts turn into something I can't decipher at all. It's as if they're no longer human. Which I suppose makes sense, since Dark magic utterly robs them of their humanity.

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Order Only Private message to Mr Macnair

2015-08-05T21:02:53Z

Sorry to bother you. I know you prefer your solitude. I would have asked Charlie but that's not possible right now.

So I was wondering if there are any methods for luring a Unicorn, especially if you're not at all an innocent.

I have a feeling that the answer is "no," but it seemed worth it to ask.

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Private message to Barty

2015-08-05T15:55:20Z

Were the proof-of-life charms his idea, or yours? Perhaps you came up with it together?

I don't know much about normal, healthy parent-child relationships, but from what I've gathered it's not unusual for a child to think of their parent as invincible. They are larger than life and can never die. The parent, though, is much more aware of mortality and vulnerability and watches over their offspring with absolute vigilance.

I know you didn't think Antonin was invincible, but I think he was more accustomed to being worried about you than the reverse. Just imagine that stretch of time in Ireland that you almost didn't return from.

What did you expect him to do, if you hadn't survived?

I'm just very curious to know what you two had planned if one of you died before the other. Because I don't think it likely included killing sprees.

Maybe the proof-of-life charms weren't about plans. Maybe they were just motivation to stay alive, for each other.

I told one of my colleagues that there was something Romantic about your relationship with Antonin. I'm not sure he really understood what I meant by that. But what you're doing has the weight of a dramatic aria or poem - the ultimate expression of your rage and torment. It's the only medium you've dedicated your life to, though it would have been better for everyone if you'd been a painter, or something, instead.

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Private message to Barty

2015-08-05T06:01:26Z

Because it was your idea to make the Inferi, wasn't it?

I'm sure most people assume it was my mother's plan, and perhaps she even took credit for it. But you're the one who led all the Inferi for the Lord Protector. You saw first hand the overwhelming damage they were capable of.

So it was your idea first, I think. Maybe Antonin even knew it was your idea?

Because who else would he have made all of those for?

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Private message to Barty

2015-08-05T04:44:27Z

Before I left the castle I wondered at what point your efforts would begin to flag, but now I can see that things aren't moving in that direction.

I discovered splinters of wand wood embedded in the walls and ceiling, so you're cracking the wands with a great deal of force. I already know of your ability to push through exhaustion and extreme conditions and not have your skills be any worse for it, but you're also fueling yourself with the Dark ritual magic.

Bruises and torn clothing indicates that you handle the victims roughly while they're still alive and petrified. Once they're all arranged to your liking (head facing East), you kill the familiars and mark the cardinal points with their blood. Then you start the ritual killings.

The hearts aren't missing because you took them, but because they're gone. You open up their chests, then levitate the heart out, and use a Dark spell that combusts them into nothing, except for the wave of energy that floods over you.

Everything I've seen indicates a level of rage that I've probably never experienced. But everything's also very precise and controlled (not a surprise, by the way). For now, anyway.

I wonder who you're angry at. All of your victims? I think those are just petty grievances. Excuses, maybe.

You know who you're angry at, and so do I.

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Private message to Barty

2015-08-04T16:32:29Z

There was never any dove.

It was all a lie, from top to bottom.

I do that sometimes. Mummy even used to warn people about it, telling them I had a habit of lying to get attention and sympathy from others. But I always found that a lie was more useful than the truth. More simple and, in my case, more believable.

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Order Only Private message to Draco

2015-08-04T05:28:27Z

Draco, I think your shift at the Elysian must have ended by now.

Are you at the castle tonight? Or in New London in Russell's flat?

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Order Only

2015-08-02T05:30:56Z

Unit 3 reporting.

All of the Inferi here have fallen down and stopped their advance.

I think they're dead? Truly dead, I mean.

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Private message to Crouch

2015-07-24T15:06:40Z

Assessment via owl post now?

And yes I knew you were there, but I don't know how you have the time, or why you bother.

How do you force someone to ripen? How can you be sure that this isn't the best I am capable of?

I have more questions that aren't about me.

I'm not going to ask them because it's time for me to stop caring about what you think.

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Order Only - Private message to Justin

2015-07-21T01:58:34Z

Still no sign of Corbyn? I'm sure you're going stir-crazy by now.

Rachel sent me, Ron, Peel and Farthing to some villages not far from Glasgow. There's been some nasty firefights and disputes in the area and it's affected the dairy industry there and other things. Apparently the locals suspected that some newcomers were actually working for the old MLE as spies. I checked them all out and they were just ordinary people, but they were English, not Scottish, and that's what had the locals worried.

Funny that there's still some bad blood around here that has nothing to do with actual blood purity. We ended up calling Mr Macnair in to speak Scottish at them and that seemed to help smooth things over. Afterward he told us that Voldemort did a lot of damage in that area around the time of the first war, and ended up killing off several of the old Scot wizarding clans who tried to stand up to him. So now they're all quite mistrustful and didn't even seem to truly believe that the wizard they knew as the Lord Protector is dead. But I think Mr Macnair saying it was true made them believe it.

Anyway, I don't want to distract you if you're concentrating. I hope you're able to return to the castle soon, though.

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Order Only Private message to Rachel

2015-07-15T16:49:22Z

I wanted you to know that even though I've been helping Draco with Russell Faust, I haven't forgot about Rigel.

But before I can think through the possible ways to lure him out of the Palace, I need to know a few things, and maybe your contact at Buckingham could find these things out for us.

First, does Rigel wear any magical jewellery? For the last few years Mummy has used one of Daddy's artefacts - a bracelet - to track Rigel's movements. I had to wear something similar when I was little, because I tried to run away from home a few times. In Rigel's case he just has a tendency to wander off, I think.

Second, are there any enforcers assigned to him? Mrs Baylock is his nanny, but he can control her if he chooses too. If he's been assigned an enforcer, though, it might give us an idea of what kind of people can resist Rigel's influence.

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Order Only - Private message to Ron and Justin

2015-07-08T22:03:12Z

You two all right? I thought you might want to know that Honoria is fine. Everyone's so worried about Ginny (understandably) that they might not have told you.

Ron, I saw that my mother wrote to your family.

What's she said?

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Order Only Private message to Alice, Remus, Rachel, Ron, Justin, and Draco

2015-07-08T16:26:15Z

Justin and I found the room where they were treating Ginny. The healer who was helping her was confused, but I saw her memory of what happened.

Two of Crouch's Aurors showed up just a bit ago and told the healer "that's a Phoenix, Bellatrix will want her," and they took Ginny away. The healer is worried because she hadn't finished treating Ginny, and her injuries were quite grave.

That means she's been taken to Buckingham.

Ron, I'm sorry.

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Private message to Crouch

2015-06-29T01:33:01Z

I know you weren't at Maidstone last night. I would have known, this time.

Too bad. I don't think I dropped my elbow at all, but you could have told me for sure.

I realised something, though. When you last wrote you called Justin "squib-spawn" - did Antonin Dolohov really not tell you tell you the truth? Or did Dolohov simply not believe what Justin told him?

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a place for missing things

2015-06-23T20:06:10Z

Some people have written to me to ask about the boy in the diary. I'm sorry, but I don't think I want to talk about him any more than I already have - I gave enough of myself to him all those years ago, and now I'm ready to stop. But I will say that he was - mostly likely - exactly who you think he was.

I didn't have very good judgment about men and boys when I was younger. I was always noticing them, and I thought they were probably all much safer and more reliable than women. And so I wanted their attention and protection very badly. Even as young as seven or eight, any kind man I encountered would be cast in the role of the hero who would take me away and marry me, or adopt me, or something of that kind.

But that changed after what happened with the diary. I realised that kindness can be used as a tool and a weapon, and that hostility can take on many different forms. I didn't become completely mistrustful, but I became much more careful, and probably more lonely. So lonely that I even missed writing in the diary sometimes, even though I knew the whole thing had been a lie.

I was glad when the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang came to Hogwarts, because they wouldn't know the same things about me that all the other Hogwarts students knew. I hoped it would be an opportunity to make a true friend. And it was.

Everyone knows by now that Justin and I are married. I was going to write about how we met, how we became friends, and how we came to love one another, but for some reason it feels much more personal to share something lovely than something upsetting, like the story behind the diary. Our relationship was a secret for so long, too, that to be open about it now feels peculiar. I get used to it a little more each day, though. To this new life where I can be whatever I want to be.

So what I can tell you as that we came to know each other deeply, and we shared many moments together, both good and bad, just like any other couple. Only I suppose we went through those ups and downs at quite a younger age than most. That's what living in the Protectorate did, though, and not just for me. For many people, it made the simplest of things, like dating and falling in love and having friends, into a trial.

I can't help but wonder how many of you who are reading this are still living like you're in the Protectorate, and why you would do such a thing.

But then, I know, don't I? I missed my diary. I missed the boy inside it. Don't be like me. Don't miss the things that made you small and fearful. I think it's probably normal to be afraid to go without them, but in the end, it will be better. It's the only way to move forward at all.

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a place for writing things

2015-06-03T18:36:14Z

It's difficult to write about the diary because there are parts of that year I don't remember well at all, and then other parts that I remember vividly.

I already had this journal and was able to use it for the first time. I was excited to talk to people, maybe even make friends, but looking back the things I wrote about were peculiar. Lots of random observations and odd questions. (Maybe that's why, a few years later, I was invited to a club called The Tea of the Strange.) Writing here was nice enough. I got to keep in touch with Daddy and talk to Harry and Draco, and even got to know some new people, like Sally Anne Perks and Ron Weasley. On a few occasions I exchanged comments with a muggleborn girl who was then owned by Harry Marvolo (Potter). I was shocked to learn that muggleborns could read and write. Mummy loathed muggleborns, wouldn't even think of having them in the house. She felt that they tainted the environment in some way, and filled my head with a lot of wholly inaccurate notions about them.

Because of my mother's very strong opinions I never wrote too openly in this journal. I knew she could read every word, and that she would file away every detail, whether she commented on it or not.

I probably made some kind of passive complaint about it in front of Harry, because he later gave me an old diary and told me I could write in it, instead, if I wanted to write my thoughts where no one could see them. The diary was given to Harry by his father, but Harry wasn't too interested in it.

I was very interested in it, nearly from the start. Not just because it was a place for writing secret thoughts, but because the diary wrote back to me.

I thought the diary must be charmed, at first. To function as a friendly but harmless companion, maybe. But the more the diary wrote to me, the more I understood it as a real person. He was a boy, quite a bit older than I, who had gone to Hogwarts a long time ago. He was very well-spoken but there was something sad and a little bit lonely in his words. I wanted him to tell me everything about himself, so I told him everything about me. I told him things I never told anyone, and will probably never tell anyone again.

Each time I opened up to him, he would open up a tiny bit, too. I learned that he was an orphan. That he was afraid certain professors didn't like him. They were tiny, sparkling bits that I was able to add to my growing idealisation of him - which, of course, was just what he wanted. He wanted me in a state where I would do anything for him, and soon enough, that's just where I was.

That's when I started forgetting things. And that's when the ~~Basalisk~~ Basilisk starting attacking people in the school.

Even when I started to suspect there was something wrong with me, and that there was something off about the boy, I didn't want to stop writing. I didn't want to lose the only person I had ever shown myself to.

I never did push him away, and by the time I really, truly wanted to, there wasn't enough of me left to do it. So I had to be saved, that time. By Harry and his friends.

I will always be grateful to Harry. To the people who helped me come back to myself. I think I might even be grateful to that boy, for teaching me lessons that were crucial in the years that came after. They are lessons that I wish I could have passed along to certain friends of mine, but unfortunately, some things only stick when you experience them first hand.

That diary is gone now. I'm using this one, instead.

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a place for hiding things

2015-05-31T00:11:25Z

When I started out at Hogwarts, the first thing I looked for was a hiding place.

Everyone needs a good hiding place. For trinkets, for baubles. For thoughts and feelings we don't want anyone to see.

I always had a lot of hiding places at home, and I changed them so much that I forgot what I had hidden and where. At my father's house there was a loose stone in the wall of my Uncle Rabastan's boyhood room. I think he might have hidden things there himself, once. Love letters to girls, or little bottles of whiskey. Those sound like things he would hide.

When I was seven I found a collared dove, just a fledgling that was pushed from the eaves. I didn't know then that you shouldn't pick them up. I thought it was hurt, so I took it inside and hid it behind the stone in the wall. I fed it for a few days, then finally took it outside, where it flew away. I know now that it's lucky it didn't die.

I tried to hide other things there, later, and got in trouble for doing so. But that never stopped me from looking for more places to hide things.

At Hogwarts I looked all the way back into the furthest reaches of the dungeons, where most people don't like to go. I didn't mind. There's a giant urn tucked back there that makes for a good hiding place. I used that one, once or twice. But the best place I found was a staircase that no one uses anymore. It leads upstairs to long hallway that, if you follow it far enough, will take you to the back of the kitchens. The staircase has a small landing with an empty alcove. I put some cushions in there, along with a quilt, some books, and some sweets (sweets were another thing I always had to hide). I called it my secret stairwell.

That's where I used to curl up, and that's where I wrote in my diary (but not always this one).

It was a good hiding place for me. It wasn't good for everyone. That's where Effie Stevens was found. I don't know who killed her, or if she was trying to hide or trying to find someone. We were in an Arithmancy study group in years 4 and 5. At the Hogwarts Day of Remembrance that was held back in December, she was thinking a lot about how she wished she didn't have to be at the castle anymore. Or in England at all, really. A lot of people were thinking that.

I'll miss Effie Stevens. It's strange to feel that I've known a lot of people very well, who probably don't feel as if they know me at all. I'd like to change that, if I can. It's good to not look for hiding places, anymore.

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